AuthorTopic: The Welcome Wagon Thread (Read 98744 times)

I'm Carrie and am glad to see that everyone is starting to come over to the new site! I'm a stay at home mom with two kids (3 and 5), hairdresser, and I'm working on becoming a better writer. I'm thankful to Bob for taking over and giving me a place to get some really, really great advice!

I started it 9 years ago because I was having trouble finding out how long it would take for a body to bleed out if cut in the cartoid artery. Every group, party, gathering I was at I checked around to see it anyone was a doctor. When I finally ran into one, he was a bit hesitant to tell me ...even after I explained that I was writing a murder mystery and it was intrinsic to the plot. I figured there had to be a more efficient way to find information, so I started MWF.

I'm very happy that Bob has volunteered to take charge of MWF. From what he's set up, he's definitely the right guy to do it.

My name is Jay and have been mostly lurking these past six years. I need to post a lot more if I am to reach the coveted Jr. Member status.

I live in scenic Central Illinois (several hours south of Jim D.) and am the father of two teenaged daughters, 17 and 14 (Lord help me). I work for a neighborly insurance company maintaining their mainframe computers. These are the computers that they show in the movies with all the buttons, switches, flashing lights, and spinning tapes (although they don't look like that in real life).

My WIP has been sidetracked for quite some time and I hope to get it back on track. I am glad Bob has taken over the MWF reins and hope to participate more than I have in the past.

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..."You just can't sing a depressing song when you're playing the banjo. You can't go, 'Oh Death and grief and sorrow and murder...'"

Bob. It looks great. There's no replacing our favorite redhead, but MWF is torch that will never be allowed to go out. It's just too damn good of an idea, and has brought so many great people together. Well done.

Charles

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A writer must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid.

One teensy weensy question -- is there a setting somewhere so I can increase the font size? My eyes aren't what they used to be....

Janet

Not for the default theme, which is what everyone is set to use. But you can, by clicking the "Profile" button, go into your profile and change that theme. Click on Look and Layout Preferences, then look for

Current Theme: Forum or Board Default (change)

Click the change link, and switch it to the "Classic YaBB SE Theme." I was able to set that font a little larger. You'd think I should be able to change the font setting on the Default SMF Theme, but I haven't found an easy way yet.

Donna Parker, born a Missouri hillbilly, now living in Alabama. Not related to Ingrid, which is too bad--from my point of view, anyway. I've been married for going on 36 years and we have two adult sons. I've been with MWF a long time, although I can't pinpoint the exact year. I have three books published now--with very small presses, but published. The last one was just released Sunday (Woohoo! ). The first two are mysteries and the folks here deserve a good bit of the credit because they answered countless questions and let me look in on their publishing lives to gain inspiration. Thanks, everybody! I'm so happy and grateful to Bob that we have this nice new home.

I think it's great that everyone is stopping in and giving profiles...I feel like I'm getting to know everyone all over again! And lots of new folks, too.

I'm a Jersey girl who grew up in the pharmaceutical world, doing everything from drug discovery to marketing. After 30+ years in the Dilbert-based corporate world (yes, it's all true!), I escaped early this year to do something different. So, I have started up my own consulting business, and I aspire to write a mystery novel set in 'pharma' as we fondly call the industry. I found MWF earlier this year and love the community and the awesome folks here. It will probably take me years to get my novel written, but checking in here frequently keeps me focused on the goal while I'm distracted by my new business.

I'm married, have 2 daughters in college and grad school, as well as 3 stepsons. One of the stepsons is married and we're expecting a grandson in December. This has been a year of lots of changes for us!

My name's Daniel Hatadi and my day job consists of programming poker machines. No, I don't rush around to clubs with a bat utility belt and fiddle with the machines until they pay copious amounts of cash. Nothing like that at all. It's a plain old office job and aside from the colourful bells and whistles, it's a plain old programming job too.

By now you've probably noticed the slightly non-American spelling. That's because I'm Australian. Don't go thinking I'm some kind of croc-hunter or kangaroo breeder, though, I'm half Croatian, half Romanian by blood. So I only half turn up in photos.

Enough about me, now to my writing.

I came to MWF about two years ago, around the time I started my first novel about my PI-in-training character, Danny Hawaii. MWF has been a great resource and it's great to see it continue in this new format (which as forum systems go, is much more familiar to me). Two years on and I finished the novel, or at least what I call the third draft of it. For the last few months, it's been hiding in a folder on my computer, mostly because I don't believe it's good enough to work on. In the meantime though, I haven't been lazy. I've started a new novel which is a mix of crime and the supernatural, set in both modern and post-WWI Australia.

I've joined MWF for a year now. Felt quite alone on my side of the Atlantic until I met you guys. I live in Paris (France) and have been writing mysteries for 2 years. Tried the market (here in France) and failed miserably for three reasons. 1- Mysteries here are mainly translations from English or American authors2- The genre -- when written by French authors -- is the realm for a selected few3- (And the main reason I boggled it,) I haven't met MWF yet. MWF taught me how to write (I'm still learning.) It taught me to see myself as a writer. I found there were questions I was asking myself others had too, and I met those who had the answers. I still have so many unanswered questions, I can't thank Bob enough for taking the relay.Hooray to you Bob for a Job well done Zara

Seeing as my intro is a little sparse compared to others, I'd better expand it a little....

Been a member of MWF since 2002. (Although you wouldn’t know, as my contributions have been even sparser (if there is such a word!))Like Bob I’m now an ex cop (27 years) and ex Military (MP 9 years)On finishing my police career, in Scotland, I uprooted my family and dragged them 12,500 miles to Wellington, New Zealand, where now work for a government agency involved in fraud detection. My web site is not writing related, it’s just the tale of my adventures, moving and now residing in NZ. My work in progress has been on the go for far too long. I keep promising myself, french windows leading to a sandy beach where I can ‘get on with it’. I’m nearly there location wise; I just need to re-motivate myself writing-wise. My characters, plot and story are all there, it’s having the courage to put them together in a presentable format and letting go of them…Although I think the Scottish crime story market has flooded a little now...

Anyway that’s me. I hope to get more involved in the forum (and the writing) now that my lifestyle has changed from the running-round-in-circles police wise, to one with more ‘quality’ time. It’s nice to see the rejuvenation that’s going on within the forum, like a phoenix rising from the ashes…Although; I’m usually on after the other side of the hemisphere has gone to bed.

The name's Marcel Stipetic, born in Quebec to a French Canadian mother and Croatian father (How 'bout that Daniel? Hrvatsko bratstvo!). Got my pharmacy degree from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, the location of my WIP about an ER physician who uncovers that the death of a local DA was not due to natural causes, but from an elaborate poisoning. And then the story goes on and on and on...toward a suspenseful, roller-coaster, twisting, I didn't see that coming, end. I've obviously embellished a tad, but the story is really typical of some of the schlock that's out there. Hey, it's my first attempt at fiction. I arrived in Greece six years ago--Kalimera everbody--from Austin, Texas, y'all, where I was the Senior Specialist in Poison Information at a Poison Center. I'm now the Scientific Affairs Manager at Greece's leading Contract Research Organisation, married (finally, according to Mommy) and the boastful father of a 17 month old baby girl (well, I'm fairly sure I'm the father as a colleague once lauded, upon seeing her picture, "You're one of the lucky ones. You don't need a paternity test." Good for me. Don't know what it does for her. I've been on MWF for a while now--I'm terrible with dates. I like to jump into medical folders, especially when questions concern poisons. Poisons are good, no?

I'm also a member of The Dirty Deed, a reclusive online mystery critique group over on Charles King's wonderful The Mysterious Writ website.

« Last Edit: October 06, 2006, 08:23:39 AM by Poisonguy »

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All substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison from a remedy. -Paracelsus